Days before the expiration of its loan program, the Department of Energy, under fire for backing more than a half-billion dollars in loans to now-bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra LLC, announced Wednesday more than $1 billion in new loan guarantees for other solar projects in Nevada and Arizona.
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The Nevada project is sponsored by Los Angeles-based SolarReserve LLC, whose investors include Citigroup, U.S. Renewables Group, Good Energies, Credit Suisse, Nazarian Enterprises and Argonaut Private Equity, which had a major stake in Solyndra.

PCG Asset Management also is listed as one of the company’s investors. That company’s board of directors includes Ronald Pelosi, the brother-in-law of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat.

Kevin Smith, chief executive for SolarReserve, said PCG’s investment in SolarReserve is about one-percent. He said Mr. Pelosi was not involved in the project. Mr. Smith said that, unlike Solyndra, the project had a long-term revenue source locked up through a contract to sell power to the Nevada Power Company.